Deborah Allen Recalls Magical ‘Telepathy’ With Prince

As fans and admirers come to grips with the unexpected death of Prince, who passed away today at 57, it’s clear that the musician’s influence reaches far beyond a single genre. Few artists were more celebrated, more revered and more enigmatic in the mid-Eighties, when Prince was at his commercial peak, but few were also as prone to experimentation, even when the idea – or the results – may have asked more questions than were ultimately answered. Such is the case with a 1987 recording project from Memphis-born country hitmaker Deborah Allen, whose album Telepathy featured a title track written, produced and played on by Prince (using one of his many aliases, “Joey Coco”).
Although the encounters with Prince were relatively few, Allen remembers him today as a very spiritual man without whom she would have missed out on some magical, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. “When I heard the news I was just completely shocked. I got weak all over and sad all at once,” she tells Rolling Stone Country. “I’m very honored to have been in his life and to get to feel his big, beautiful heart and his sharing spirit.”
Allen, who was signed to Nashville’s RCA Records, had scored a few minor hits but really connected with a song she co-wrote (with Rafe Van Hoy and Rory Bourke) called “Baby I Lied.” A Top Five country tune, the single also reached the Top Thirty on the pop chart. A few years later, with her label shifting Allen to their pop division, she was in L.A. working at Sunset Sound studios — and while she was aware Prince was also recording at the same facility, out of respect for his privacy and because she was focused on her own project, she didn’t go snooping around for the enigmatic performer. One day, however, when nature called, that’s just who she ran into while crossing the studio courtyard. She recalled her first meeting with him in a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone contributor Stephen L. Betts.
“He had a bathroom in his part, but our studio you walked across the courtyard and went into the main area,” Allen said. “I came out of the bathroom and saw this basketball going by. I thought it was my friend that was with me. I picked it up and turned around and I’m laughing, going, ‘Here. . . Oh, hey.’ It was Prince.”
The second time they encountered each other came after an executive changeover at the record label. She had already gone through one shakeup and was “running with it, trying to live up to the challenge.” On the day several label people were listening to what would be the Telepathy album, Allen was dressed in a black mini-skirt with a yellow jacket splattered with paint.
“My hair was all jacked out and I had some cool earrings on,” she recalls. “I decided I’d go get some coffee while they were listening to my album. So, I had a couple of coffees in my hand and there’s Prince playing basketball in his blue silk bell-bottoms, blue silk shirt and platform shoes. I’m standing there beside him, watching him shoot baskets and I say, ‘Well, that was a good one.’ Then I go, ‘I like your outfit.’ He says, ‘Likewise.’ That’s all we said to each other. We acknowledged each other then we went on.
“Those new people from New York said, ‘We like your album but if you can come up with a couple more cuts, we need a couple we can really run with,'” Allen continues. “I come back to Nashville and I’m sitting in my kitchen and I just say a prayer: ‘God, please tell me what to do.’ All of a sudden it was like this light bulb went off in my head that said, ‘You met Prince. He’s the greatest pop artist right now.’ So, I wrote him this letter: ‘Dear Prince, You may not remember me, but I’m Deborah Allen and we met by the basketball court. The new RCA executives like my album but they want me to do a couple more cuts. I was wondering if you’d be interested in writing, co-writing, and/or producing something on me. That would be merely wonderful.’
More News
-
Elvis Costello & the Imposters Plot 'We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday' Tour
- New Year, Same Lineup
- By
-